Onogurs

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The Onogurs were a late antique equestrian people living on the northeastern edge of the Black Sea .

The Onogurs (or in some sources Unnugurs ) are mentioned several times in late antiquity or early medieval sources, for example in Priskos , Pseudo-Zacharias (i.e. in the extended version of the church history of Zacharias of Mytilene ), Jordanes , Agathias , Menander Protektor and Theophylactus Simokates . Statements in Oriental (such as Armenian) sources suggesting an earlier point in time are not trustworthy; only with Priskos does the reliable tradition regarding the Onogurs begin.

Their origin as well as their later history is controversial in research. In several sources Onogurs are put in close relation to the Proto- Bulgarians and z. B. referred to as Unnogur Bulgarians . Especially in later Byzantine sources this is the case: Theophanes ( AM . 6171/678/79 AD.) Mentioned in the context of a digression to the Bulgarian early history the Unnogundur-Bulgarians and in another source is reported, the Bulgarians had earlier Onogunduren called . It is still unclear whether Onogurs were part of the Bulgarians or whether parts of them only later joined the Bulgarians; at least a distinction was apparently made between individual parts of the Bulgarians. Often the Onogurs are seen in research as part of the Bulgarians, sometimes vice versa. Much remains uncertain about the relationship between Onogurs and Bulgarians. In any case, the term “Bulgarians” was used later to denote other groups, including the earlier Onogurs. An imprecise description of the Pontic steppe peoples is not uncommon, as the imprecise use of the terms Scythians and Huns in the Greco-Latin sources shows.

The sources on the actual history of the Onogurs, who were very likely a Turkic people , are not very numerous. Priskos reports of various embassies of some steppe peoples in the northern Black Sea region to Constantinople in the 460s. In this context, the Onogurs are also mentioned, who were defeated in the battle with the Sabirs . They had given up their old home and moved to the Black Sea. In 552, the sources report that the Onogurs broke into the Caucasus , and at the end of the 560s, Onogurs are mentioned as subjects of a ruler of the Kök Turks in the lower Volga region . In this context, Onogurs could not be an ethnic but a purely organizational name, based on the Turkish ogur / oguz (as the name for "ten tribes"). Turxanthos , son and successor of the Turkish ruler Sizabulos , boasted before an Eastern Roman embassy in 576 that he also ruled over the Onogurs. After the power of the Kök Turks waned, the Avars seem to have gained supremacy over the Onogurs. The Bulgarian ruler Kubrat then probably also commanded Onogurs. As mentioned above, its later history can no longer be reliably reconstructed. At least larger parts are likely to have acted together with the Bulgarians.

The German name of the Hungarians (although these are not related to the Onogurs) is derived from the Onogur name.

literature

  • Gyula Moravcsik : On the history of the Onogurs . In: Hungarian Yearbooks 10, 1930, pp. 53–90.
  • Walter Pohl : The Avars. A steppe people in Central Europe 567–822 AD. 2nd edition. Beck, Munich 2002.
  • Samuel Szádeczky-Kardoss: Onoguroi. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Supplementary volume XII, Stuttgart 1970, Sp. 902-906.
  • Daniel Ziemann: From wandering people to great power. The emergence of Bulgaria in the early Middle Ages. Böhlau, Cologne a. a. 2007, pp. 73-77.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Daniel Ziemann: From wandering people to great power. Cologne u. a. 2007, p. 73f.
  2. ↑ Samuel Szadeczky-Kardoss: Onoguroi. In: RE Supplement XII, Sp. 902.
  3. ↑ Daniel Ziemann: From wandering people to great power. Cologne u. a. 2007, p. 75f.
  4. ↑ Cf. Daniel Ziemann: From Wandering People to Great Power. Cologne u. a. 2007, p. 76f.
  5. ^ Cf. Walter Pohl: The Avars. Munich 2002, p. 24f.
  6. ↑ Cf. Daniel Ziemann: From Wandering People to Great Power. Cologne u. a. 2007, p. 77.
  7. ^ Cf. Walter Pohl: The Avars. Munich 2002, p. 21ff.
  8. ↑ See Samuel Szádeczky-Kardoss: Onoguroi. In: RE Supplement XII, Sp. 904f.
  9. ↑ Priskos, Fragment 30 (Edition Pia Carolla).
  10. ↑ Walter Pohl: The Avars. Munich 2002, p. 24.
  11. ↑ Walter Pohl: The Avars. Munich 2002, p. 26.
  12. ↑ Menander Protector, fragment 43.
  13. ↑ Samuel Szadeczky-Kardoss: Onoguroi. In: RE Supplement XII, Col. 904.
  14. ↑ Walter Pohl: The Avars. Munich 2002, p. 25.